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The Philippines has lodged a protest with Beijing over the “illegal” presence of a Chinese warship off a disputed island in the South China Sea. Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez said Monday that the Philippines denounced the “provocative and illegal presence of Chinese government ships” off Second Thomas Shoal near the contested Spratly …

Japan scrambled its air forces a record 306 times to intercept Chinese aircraft intruding its airspace in 2012, a figure reflecting the tense atmosphere between the two countries amid a tug-of-war over disputed islands. According to the Defense Ministry, the Air Self-Defense Force dashed jets a total of 567 times in fiscal 2012, with 306 …

Japanese fighter planes scrambled to the Senkakus after a lone Chinese state aircraft flew over the disputed islands on Thursday, a move seen as part of Beijing’s intensified efforts to challenge Tokyo’s control over the territory. “It is extremely deplorable,” Japan’s chief government spokesman Osamu Fujimura told the Financial Times. The fighter jets took off …

South Korea’s foreign ministry lodged a protest Thursday against Google’s decision to remove the Korean name of disputed islands from the English and Japanese version of its maps. Google made the changes after Japan decried the labels, removing the Korean name “Dokdo” from the Japanese version and replacing the islands’ name with “Liancourt Rocks” in …

As tensions run high between China and Japan, Seoul pulled at Tokyo’s strings after organizing a trip for foreign journalists to disputed islands at the heart of historical relations. South Korea commissioned an excursion to the Dokdo islands in the East Sea (Sea of Japan) for six US and European media groups – including the …

Tensions over disputed islands in the East China Sea have damaged Sino-Japanese trade relations and caused a dent in the automotive industry, the Asahi Shimbun reports. The massive anti-Japanese protest that broke out in Beijing last month, leaving smashed Japanese-made police cars in its wake, may have been a sign that a slump will be …

Officials from Tokyo’s metropolitan government surveyed the disputed islands off the East China Sea in a symbolic move to assert its claims. Experts and journalists, along with Tokyo city officials, boarded a boat to survey the five uninhabited islands but Japan’s central government prohibited the boat from landing on the islands. The visit lasted 10 …

Tensions may spark further between Japan and South Korea over a group of disputed islands, Wall Street Journal reports. South Korean president Lee Myung-bak visited the islands via helicopter, known as Dokdo in South Korea, and called them “worthy of sacrificing our lives”. There has been a presence of a small number of South Korean …

Beijing summoned a US diplomat over remarks critical of China, sending both countries into a diplomatic row over waters in the South China Sea. Chinese officials and local media have sent a barrage of comebacks at the US, reports the Asahi Shimbun. Assistant Foreign Minister Zhang Kunsheng summoned US Deputy Chief of Mission Robert Wang …